indodingo

Hi there new member here with a miami blue base boxster with 11,000 mile and going



Recently the PDK developed a massive leak where 5 litres of fresh pentosin filled at 10.000 mi has only 3 litre left upon inspection drainage (oil pan was left untouched), the pan and sump bolt literally drenched (pics attached)



My indy retorqued all the pan bolt, wiped clean the oil residue and use the good old talcum powder leakspotter, it was then identified the breather vent plug? (circled in yellow) as the culprit



Has anyone experience leak at this spot? Indy said parts not available and will try repair route (most likely a spring/ ball was stuck open and pissing out oil instead of excess tranny housing pressure)




Leak source circled yellow

Aronis

oh man, so it was not pulled out of car as first photo shows???? Hope it is all fixed!

Mike

indodingo

no, fortunately not pulled out, the first photo is just for reference for the breather plug location

lion shf

Is the unit toast? The 718 buy in is max budget for me, I’m keeping a close eye on divorce inducing repairs.

indodingo

fortunately the unit is still operating and shifting smoothly
It is only pissing oil like no tomorrow from that plug

StormRune

Just FYI: The PDK fluid isn't normally changed until 120,000 or 12 years. It requires a PIWIs to be done properly since various valves have to be opened and closed during the fill process.

No one should have been touching your PDK fluid at 10k miles. I think you are saying the problem started after it was refilled at 10k miles. It sounds to me, without more information, that your indy broke something doing work that shouldn't have been done.

Aronis

I like to hear these stories about the fluid not needing to be changed for 120,000 miles. I had the transmission fluid changed three times in my RS6, once when I had leak from the pan seal at about 68,000 miles and again at 102,000 when the torque converter needed to be changed. It was changed again when I had my engine out for an oil leak at 140,000 miles. My transmission was otherwise fine to 150,000 and beyond (guy who bought it wrecked it somewhere north of 150000 miles). I think replacing the fluid is actually better.

When you do replace the fluid at 120,000 the wear in the parts in the transmission might perhaps change tolerences enough to make the nice new viscous oil do bad things? But changing it more frequently allows for slow changes to not be upsetting to the mechanisms in the transmission?

Love to hear the experts give a talk on this topic, it has been beaten around forums for years.

My Porsche mechanic agrees and he has 25 plus years experience fixing Porsches......

Mike

StormRune

Interestingly, the PDK fluid/filter change interval was originally 6 years/60k miles. I had it changed in one of my 911s during that time (late 2015). Eventually, Porsche observed that the filters and fluid were still in outstanding health at 60k miles and revised it upward to 120k. I can't imagine Porsche would do this lightly since dealers were making a bundle doing the change. I looked back and that service alone cost me $1140 at the time. 6 liters of fluid, pan with integrated filter, and 3 hours labor.

But if you've found a mechanic or two that know better than the engineers that designed and built the PDK then have at it. Take into consideration that they may not be completely unbiased since they make money selling this. But you stand the chance of breaking something each time you do it unnecessarily. Just ask OP.